Silence pervaded the air, seeping into the absence of her thoughts as she moved through the trees with ease. The early light of dawn was not touched in the familiar warmth she often remembered back at home, but it was enough, she thought, or it would be, one day. How different things had become, and all within an instant…

She left behind Aksel, for only a short while as she turned southward and explored. She was beginning to understand that the world she had entered was vast, filled with unique mountain faces that kissed the horizon beyond, forests that wept for cover and prized the shadows they created, and flora that she had never once thought to know.

And when she reached a shady forest, filled with a mist that tickled her heels, Elvie made the poignant point to herself that these trees were nothing like the silver-rimmed wood she knew at home. A bittersweet realization set in: the reality of how far away from home she was.

However, in her slow saunter through the woods, it was the scent of honey and almond that nearly stopped the girl in her tracks. Hope was a foul and feisty friend, and it gripped at her heart with the hammering of her chest. It couldn’t be, could it?

Her legs pushed her forward.

Elvie’s eyes, cast in a dual-toned hue, narrowed along the fog and haze that swept across the forest, her limbs pushing past gnarled roots and snow-kissed foliage as she weaved through the shadows with ease. Honey and almond smelled like—

Her breath stalled in her chest. A silhouette of a canine stood before her, though dappled in the familiar colors of peach and cream. They held a softer complexion, short and light, and for a moment, Elvie couldn’t believe her eyes.

But if she too had become a wolf…then…

Sweetpea…? She uttered softly into the misty wood, her head falling into a delicate cant as she stared at the person she hoped would be her friend.